In many surgical procedures, it is advantageous to close an incision or wound during or following the procedure. For example, in many endoscopic procedures requiring catheterization, it is desirable to close an incision in the femoral artery following the catheterization. While some adhesives and coagulants are available for closing such incisions, it is often preferred to close the incision using traditional sutures. One problem created by the use of sutures during endoscopic procedures is that little room is available for tying or otherwise manipulating the suture. For this reason, it is often preferable to tie a suture knot outside the body and then run the knot to the artery (or other incision cite) using a knot pusher, thereby cinching the loop of suture and closing the incision.
Known knot pushers suffer from several problems. In some cases, knot pushers are complicated or unwieldy, making them difficult to use. In other cases, sutures may tend to slip out of grooves or recesses in knot pushers. When this happens, valuable time may be wasted recovering the knot or tying a new suture.